How Luke and Anakin's Missing Hands Reshaped Kylo Ren's Lightsaber - Exclusive

Nearly 12 years ago, we got our precise archetypal glimpse astatine the caller large Star Wars villain — Kylo Ren, aka Ben Solo, the grandson of Darth Vader — successful what would go 1 of the highest-grossing movies of each time. Smack dab successful the mediate of the archetypal teaser for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Ren lumbers done a snowy satellite and fires up his reddish lightsaber. A 2nd aboriginal – successful a infinitesimal successful which the net would suffer its corporate caput – helium switched connected the crossguard of his saber, a large surface first.

While the nonstop plan of Kylo Ren’s lightsaber has been canonically explained, galore of the secrets astir its instauration person been nether wraps – until now. Jet Cooper, the 3D Modelling Supervisor of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, says that some Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader’s sliced-off hands straight led to the inclusion of the crossguard connected Kylo Ren’s saber. I spoke with Cooper exclusively astir the galore decisions that went into crafting the iconic limb and however overmuch changed betwixt the archetypal plan and on-screen product.

The lightsaber had gone done assorted iterations passim the plan process. Cooper and The Force Awakens manager and shaper J.J. Abrams dug backmost centuries, looking astatine knights’ swords, for inspiration.

“The archetypal [version] was successful a saber signifier without a flare connected the extremity of it,” Cooper says, “because Kylo Ren was precise overmuch a knight but really, truly crude. We’d suggested casually successful a speech 1 time that everyone was losing their hands. Luke mislaid his hand. Vader mislaid his hand. And the crushed Europeans enactment quillons connected swords was to halt that from happening.

“[Ren’s saber has] the main beam with the cracked crystal, truthful it's truly irregular. But what happens if we divided that beam and divert it astatine the sides? Then, of course, Europeans utilized that portion of the sword similar a weapon, similar a blade. It was bully that J.J. had Kylo Ren crook that and past propulsion [the guard] into the idiosyncratic up against a tree. So, fundamentally it's an old-fashioned wide sword.”

While the limb has roots successful European history, Cooper says helium and Abrams had different rationale for changing up Kylo’s lightsaber design.

“[Another] crushed we flared the extremity retired was truthful that, erstwhile you person a silhouette of it, that a 12-year-old could archer what it was.”

Cooper, who besides worked connected movies similar Skyfall, X-Men: First Class, and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, says that Kylo Ren’s lightsaber is among the creations he’s astir arrogant of.

“My favourite happening I've got successful my bureau that I ever bash a show-and-tell with is Kylo Ren's lightsaber,” Cooper says. “I got to plan that with J.J. Abrams and [we] finished connected mentation fig 13. Lucky fig 13.”

In summation to making props for blockbuster movies, Cooper serves arsenic Creative Director and Head of 3D astatine Makinarium – who conscionable unveiled a one-of-a-kind Terminator collectible that’s disposable to preorder now. While he’s had a agelong vocation successful the movie concern moving connected monolithic franchises and smaller movies alike, overmuch of Cooper’s emotion of prop making traces backmost to a postulation far, acold away.

“When I was 8 years old, I saw the archetypal Star Wars,” Cooper says. “I came retired of the theatre reasoning ‘That's what I privation to bash erstwhile I turn up!’ It’s magic.”

Michael Peyton is the Senior Editorial Director of Events & Entertainment astatine IGN, starring amusement contented and sum of tentpole events including IGN Live, San Diego Comic Con, gamescom, and IGN Fan Fest. He's spent 20 years moving successful the games and amusement industry, and his adventures person taken him everyplace from the Oscars to Japan to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Follow him connected Bluesky @MichaelPeyton